The Junior Flag Chargers won their first game of the season, 26-18, over the Long Beach Junior Jackrabbits.

The Chargers scored early when Michael Matthews ran for a touchdown. Brendan Warady followed by running in the extra point. On the ensuing possession, Maximus Peart stole the handoff from the Long Beach quarterback’s handoff and ran it in for a touchdown to give the Chargers a 13-0 lead.

In the third quarter, Matthews scored his second touchdown.

Later in the game, the next series, Matthews scored his third touchdown with Ryan Nguyen converting the extra point. Strong efforts by Peart and Nguyen led the defense.

Flag

The Irvine Chargers 7-8 flag football opened the season with a 20-14 loss against the Orange Chiefs. The Chargers stingy defense was led by Alec Polatayan with five flags. Max Gale and Max Maver pulled two flags each.

J.D. Matassarin provided leadership at quarterback throughout the game. His effort was highlighted by a completion to Max Gale who turned the apparent short yardage play into a 60-yard touchdown run through the Chiefs defense.

J.D. Knibb also had a kickoff return for 51 yards and a touchdown.

Junior Clinic

The Chargers defeated the Whittier Trojans, 42-0. The Chargers started off quickly with linebacker Zeke Alleman and Logan Bednar putting pressure on the Trojan backfield causing a fumble. Alleman took the fumble 44 yards for the score. Marc “Bubba” Filia ran in the extra point to make it 7-0.

The Charger defense came up with tackles for large losses, led by Filia. The offense marched right down the field on the next drive led by Alleman and two big runs by running back Ryan Ellis.

Ellis set up the next touchdown by Filia for 8 yards. Tyson Matthews punched in the extra point. The Chargers started the second quarter behind quarter back Matthew Barrera leading his team and a 20-yard run up the middle by Garret Riley and Anthony Davidson with a key block up field to lead the way.

Filia punched in the extra point for 21-0 lead. Before the half, running back Patrick McMorris cut up the middle for a 25-yard touchdown run.

The defense added another touchdown with an Ellis interception for 42 yards. In the fourth quarter the Chargers capped off the scoring after Filia’s 65-yard touchdown run.

The Charger defense dominated the line of scrimmage with defensive ends Shane Illingworth and Jacob Nash holding the outside game and linebackers Matthews and Cory Bautista stuffing the middle. Alleman led the team in tackles. Freddie Villamar on the defensive line caused havoc in the backfield all day, with Jacob Salcedo and Bednar in support. The offensive line was dominant behind Illingworth, Salcedo, Villamar, Josaiah Tanielu, Bautista,

Clinic Blue started the season with a 27-6 victory over Newport Mesa. With some tough running by Quentin Lake, Ryan May and Hakeem McMorris, the Chargers marched 35 yards down to the 27 yard line. From there, uarterback J.T. Daniels threw a fade to Rian Fields for the touchdown.

The entire offensive line of Parker Weisrock, Isaiah Perez, Christian Chung, Elijah Collier, Jimmy Leys, Carston Graves and Sean Hall to an excellent job leading the team to the end zone.

Fields and Day led the defense. Each had at least eight tackles and a forced fumble. Corners Stephon Robbins, Teddy Burton and Isaac Torres consistently made plays with defensive ends Daniels and Weisrock to shut down the outside. The interior defensive line was lead by Greg Geel, Nathan Kim, Austin Gaines and Dan Wilson.

The Chargers blew open a tight game with three second half touchdowns. Stephon Robbins scored from 67 yards, making four would-be defenders miss him in the open field. Daniels carried in the extra point following a block

from Chase Cooper. On the ensuing kick off, Brendan Satchfield perfectly placed the onside kick which Lake caught in mid air and raced 50 yards for another touchdown. May banged in the extra point and then finished off the scoring with a 12-yard TD reception from Daniels.

Clinic – Gold

The Irvine Chargers Clinic Gold team defeated the Compton Titans, 21-6, in their season opener Saturday.

The Chargers’ offensive line of Luke Coleman, Jack Mathews, Troy Madrigal and Brendan Kennedy gave Justin Doron time for a solid flip to Wesley Roebuck and the first score of the game.

Defensive pressure from Octavious Thomas and Jacob Puente held Compton scoreless in the first quarter. The Titans struck early in the second quarter, and the Chargers were unable to resist the advance. Tristan McDannel, Robert Orendai, Daniel Hurtado and Mark Hill held the line to on the PAT attempt.

The Chargers gained yardage on their next drive, but despite two successful carries for first downs, they were unable to break through the Compton defense and turned the ball over on downs.

As time ran down in the half, Roebuck intercepted a pass and ran it in for the

Chargers’ second touchdown. The Charger defense was very effective in the third. Brent Miller, Dean Nagle, Sean Casey and Michael Rodrigues combined to thwart Compton’s advance. Austin Mowrey made two successive first down gains, then Justin Doron bolted left along the sideline for a 25 yd touchdown run.

Aguilar scored the extra point late in the third quarter. John Lavigne fired up the Charger defense in the fourth with two sacks, and Towns King made several big plays to frustrate the Titan offense. The game ended on a fumble recovery by Nash as time expired.

Linebackers Curtis Robinson, Connor McBride, Preston Humphrey and Adam Sikes led the game in tackles while the starting offensive line of Kyle Adams, Matthew Hutnyan, Gabriel Lopez, A.J. Knight, Jordan Davidson, Chase Bradley and Ben Roznos provided strong blocking to contribute to a pair of touchdowns in the first quarter.

Brian Abel started the contest off with a 21 yard scamper with key blocking from backs Humphrey and Sikes. On the very next offensive possession, Humphrey ran in a 62 your touchdown with help from the lead blocking by Matthew Abellaneda and others. Robinson and Humphrey took care of the extra points. The defense was strong with a caused fumble by Ryan Santa Cruz and three recovered fumbles each by Roznos, Bradley and Knight.

In the second quarter, the Chargers had two more touchdowns.

Abele, in the second play of the second quarter, had a 27 yard touchdown run and Abellaneda carried in the extra point.

Robinson had a 30 yard quarterback keeper.

The Chargers defense proved they can score too when Bobby Doerr recovered a Fountain Valley fumble in the Charger’s end zone to make it 27-0 at halftime.

In the second half, McBride hit Abel on a 25-yard TD pass.

Junior Midget

The Irvine Chargers Junior Midget team captured its first win of the season against the Garden Grove Falcons, 48-12.

Rece Goodman, Devin Aguilar and Tyler Branin had two touchdowns each, and Miles Hawkins had one touchdown.

The Irvine Chargers Midget team rolled into Long Beach for an early Saturday morning game and won, 8-6.

After an early score by Long Beach, a defensive struggle ensued with the Chargers defense holding the Jackrabbits to little yardage throughout the game. Late in the game and trailing by six, the Chargers defense had the Jackrabbits pinned deep in their own territory forcing a punt from the end zone. The Chargers defense called an all-out rush on the punt resulting in a blocked punt by defensive captain Malik McMorris with a safety giving the Chargers two points.

As a result of the safety, the Jackrabbits were forced to kick the ball to the Chargers with about 1:30 left in the game. During the ensuing plays, offensive captain Ryan Goodman hit Luke Langdon on a 40-yard pass.

Langdon, realizing he could not make the end-zone, stepped out of bounds at the five yard line to stop the clock with less than 30 seconds remaining. On the following play tailback Austin Defreitas followed fullback and offensive captain Griffin Starr into the end zone for the game winning touchdown.

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